1506: Pam Bondi

Pam Bondi became Florida’s Attorney General in 2011 after a campaign promising an emphasis on child sexual abuse and trafficking. She declared Florida would have zero tolerance for child predators. It’s odd, then, that she ignored Epstein while she was Attorney Genderal.

Epstein had already pleaded guilty to two minor misdemeanor charges in 2008. Rather than pursue the case as a predator ensnaring young girls in his rape club, the prosecutor thought he was just a patron of criminal sex workers.

Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter saw the local case was going awry, given his department built the case against Epstein. He forwarded the information to the feds. That is when then US Attorney Alex Acosta brokered the sweetheart deal that offended the world. When the media finally got the transcripts after years of seeking access, the miscarriage of justice was a worldwide scandal and yet she never took the opportunity to investigate or prosecute.

So why did she do nothing? Supposedly going after people who prey on children was her top priority? The now-shuttered Trump Foundation gave her an illegal $25,000 contribution, allegedly to stop her going after Trump University. Was that all? After all, Trump friend Alan Dershowitz, plus Clinton prosecutor Ken Starr, and Trump eventual nominee Alex Acosta were all involved in that sweetheart deal for Epstein.

As US Attorney General, she has done her best to protect Trump from release of embarassing information in the massive trove of files. She delayed the release of the documents and held back half the documents, claiming she had released everything.

• The Palm Beach Post: Could Pam Bondi have prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein when she was Florida’s top legal officer?
• The Dean’s Report: We need to know why Pam Bondi did not investigate Jeffrey Epstein when she was Florida’s AG from 2011 to 2019?!
• The Guardian: Democrats accuse DoJ of not releasing millions of Epstein files despite legal requirement